About

Open seven days a week (except for Public Holidays).

Our opening hours are 7.00am to 4.00pm, although we’re happy to open early for breakfast meetings or stay open late for evening celebrations - so contact us today and we can help arrange your booking!

Licensed venue

Available for private functions

The Watery Mouth Café operates from our light and spacious premises on the corner of High Street and Seymour Street, Blenheim - opposite picturesque Seymour Square.

The name gives an insight into the philosophy at Watery Mouth – it’s about creating the perfect environment in which to enjoy the mouth-watering sensation that comes when you look at, smell, and eat delicious food.

Our café is comprised of a downstairs area where both indoor tables and an outdoor dining area are located. Upstairs you can find a quiet seating area, with tables, comfortable sofas and coffee tables, as well as a cosy fire for colder days.

We pride ourselves on creating a welcoming café experience for people of all ages, and we are delighted to be recognised as a ‘Breastfeeding-Friendly’ café. Our upstairs area is particularly well used for business meetings, as the carpeting and acoustics (coupled with the distance from coffee machines) makes it a good place to hold an in-depth conversation. Free Wi Fi is also available for all our customers – a good way to get a little work done or catch up on personal admin while enjoying a great coffee.

On offer each day is a wide variety of modern New Zealand cuisine, served alongside great coffee, tea and other hot beverages - or local Marlborough wine and craft beers. Our menu features local and seasonal fare, with options ranging from hot breakfasts to afternoon indulgences, a wide variety of cooked and pre-prepared lunches from our cabinet, as well as gluten-free and vegetarian treats. All our meals are made from scratch in our kitchen (though we buy in our bread), and we use the best-quality ingredients each day.

The café is open seven days a week from 7.00am until 4.00pm. We serve the bustling breakfast, lunch and coffee trade, and the café is a well-utilised space for meetings. We are fully-licensed and also host private functions.

Menu

The Watery Mouth Café is proud to offer you modern New Zealand cuisine, served alongside great coffee, tea and other hot beverages, or local Marlborough wine and craft beers.

We pride ourselves on our local and seasonal fare, and love nothing more than to serve up Marlborough on the plate.

We create everything ranging from hot breakfasts (like our popular Eggs Benedict) to luscious lunches (like our mouth-watering Steak Sandwich). We also have a wide variety of cooked and pre-prepared lunches from our cabinet, for those who need something ready in a flash.

We try very hard to take into account all of our customer's needs and wants - so amongst our offerings you'll find a wide selection of choices (both healthy and indulgent) as well as gluten-free and vegetarian treats. All meals are made from scratch in our kitchen (though we do buy in our bread), and we use the best-quality ingredients each day.

Drinks-wise we like to think we have something for everyone too. From fine loose-leaf teas served in bone china, to indulgent hot chocolates, to Fair-Trade, organic coffee sure to please the most discerning drinker - we have it all. And if you're after something a little cooler, we have local craft beers, some fabulous Marlborough wines, and great quality New Zealand fruit juices, to name a few...

Catering

For your catering needs, we can offer delicious canapés according to your tastes and budget. Here are some examples of selections which have been very popular with our clients recently:

HORS D'OEUVRES / TAPAS

Salmon and cream cheese blinis

Blue cheese, quince and pecan blinis

Chicken, apricot and cream cheese filos

Salmon and asparagus filos

Mini Yorkshires with rare roast beef

Sesame beef balls with dipping sauce

Mini spring rolls with a sweet chilli Thai dipping sauce

Mini Mediterranean pizzas

Vegetarian samosas with a light curry mayo

Pesto and feta tartlets

Bruschetta with cream cheese, ham and chives

Mini sausage rolls

Prawn twisters with homemade tartare sauce

Marinated chicken nibbles

Onion marmalade with blue cheese and quince filoettes

Ham, egg and relish club sandwiches

Wasabi crab balls

Devils on horseback

Toasted sandwich triangles

Mini bacon and egg pies

SWEET TREATS

Apricot slice

Fudge brownie

Black forest fudge

Crunchie nut slice

So whether it's a corporate lunch, morning tea shout, board meeting, picnic lunch – or a meal prepared for someone who needs a treat (perhaps they've had an operation or new baby) – we can supply the mouth-watering food to match.

Contact us today to discuss how we can provide catering that's sure to impress at your next function.

Specials

Here are some of the ways we’re currently trying to make our customers' visit to Watery Mouth even more special:

CHEF'S SPECIAL

Our whitebait fritters are back! Made simply, with just egg and West Coast whitebait – unlike other fritters ours contain no flour whatsoever to bulk them up. These beauties are all whitebait and a little egg as we want to make sure the delectable whitebait is the hero of the dish.

Come in and try this Kiwi favourite – West Coast whitebait fritters with ciabatta.

T-SHIRTS AND TREATS

If you love your visits to Watery Mouth, we have a few treats you can take home with you to keep the feeling alive! They’d also make great presents for any Watery Mouth regulars you know...

Our delicious muesli – made here in the kitchen from scratch – can be purchased in store, and it’s now available with a stylish matching Watery Mouth bowl. (The talented Steve Holtum makes these bowls for us – we love supporting our local artisans.) These beauties can double as coffee bowls for those mornings when you need a little more coffee. And you can purchase the Underground coffee from us too! Muesli $11.00; bowl $30.00; coffee $40.00 for 1kg, $24.50 for 500g, $13.50 for 250g.

Or how about one of our great t-shirts that the Watery Mouth staff look so gorgeous in! They’re high-quality 100% cotton and only $35.00 or $28.00 for a singlet. They’re available in black or white in a variety of sizes (just ask).

GLUTEN-FREE GOODNESS

We did a quick tally up and by today's count we have over 25 gluten-free options on our menu... Have you tried them all? You can order any number of fantastic dishes to kick-start your day, from eggs Benedict with salmon to our bacon and kumara stack. How about the Cajun chicken salad with gluten-free dressing for lunch, or perhaps a toasted sandwich from the counter followed by a ‘Slice of Heaven’?

Come in to Watery Mouth and enjoy some gluten-free goodness with your favourite coffee.

Reviews

BEST SERVICE IN TOWN

Every time I show up, I'm greeted with a pleasant smile. The service is swift and there are always fun little trinkets to play with while you wait. Love it guys keep up the good work.Michael M, September 2016

BEAUTIFUL MEALS! GREAT FRIENDLY STAFF

Had breakfast here with family. Meals were quick, hot and beautiful.
The coffee was amazing. Highly recommend the bacon kumara stack!Matt W, August 2016

AMAZING BRUNCH

The brunch was on till midday and just made it*... bacon kumara and avo stack was fab and the salmon and cream cheese omelette was soooo good. Fab hot chocolates to wash it all down. Very very good.Graeme M, August 2016
*We’d never deny anyone their brunch no matter what the time of day! We are happy to serve our breakfast meals all day (even though the menu states until 12pm). It’s what keeps our customers coming back.

BACON KUMARA AVOCADO STACK!!!!!

What a way to start my morning. Heaps of flavour. The location was close to our accommodation so this place was a nice surprise. Friendly staff, well laid out and nice outdoor nooks. The coffee was great. Well done team.Nicki F, August 2016

Blog

Rabbits, Poppies and Planes: Holiday Hours for a Busy Month in Marlborough

Submitted by waterymouth on Wed, 12/04/2017 - 2:25pm

This April will serve up some fabulous events along with two important holidays, starting with the Omaka Classic Fighters Air Show this Easter weekend and Anzac Day swiftly following towards the end of the month. We want to stay open for the events that surround these holidays as we love being a part of the excitement; it is a pleasure to ensure there is a place for guests and locals alike to find scrumptious food and coffee as they are out and about exploring all Marlborough has to offer.

Unfortunately, staying open during the holidays is not an easy choice for a business owner to make these days. Most would love to stay open, but the cost of operating on public holidays is significantly higher, setting businesses up to run at a loss on those days. Despite public perception, we are not busier on public holidays as a lot of our regular customers are local businesses. It costs more than twice the amount to operate on a holiday, leaving three choices: recouping costs by spreading price increases throughout the year (something we don’t intend to do); closing for those days (which we sometimes do and then our staff can enjoy the holiday too); or adding a surcharge while open on the holiday.

After much debate, we have chosen to stay open for Easter and Anzac Day, and we hope you’ll appreciate why. This wasn’t an easy decision to make and the staff – who are the ones facing the questions from the public about the surcharge – have given their full support. By remaining open, we are able to fulfil our commitment to representing Marlborough’s best to our guests and regulars. Omaka Classic Fighters is the biggest event in Marlborough with thousands of visitors flocking to the region. We understand that it won’t be everyone’s choice to dine out during these holidays, but we feel it is important to offer that option to our patrons and the happy faces worn by people who do pop in make it worthwhile. After all, our vibrant community is what makes Marlborough so special, and we’re thrilled to be able to give people a reason and location to go out and experience it. We hope to see you over Easter, and we hope you’ll understand the surcharge is a must for us to remain open on these days. Thanks in advance for your understanding!

To all of our wonderful service men and women, past and present, we will keep you in our thoughts this Anzac Day. There will be no surcharge for those in uniform on Anzac Day.

Anzac Day hours: 8am – 3pm

Noho ora mai
(All the best)

Juliet and the Watery Mouth Café team

What do you think? Is there a better alternative for businesses operating on public holidays? Do you think New Zealand should have a compulsory surcharge for all public holidays as they do in Australia with Sunday trading? We’d be interested to hear your thoughts.